captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: president obama cuts short his vacation to head back to washington, while harry reid says the country is headed toward the fiscal cliff. good evening, i'm jeffrey brown. >> warner: and i'm margaret warner. on the "newshour" tonight, we have the latest on efforts to avert the looming deadline from todd zwillich of public radio international. >> brown: then, geo-politics and children: russia moves to end adoptions by american parents. >> warner: what austerity measures look like at street level: we have a report from athens. >> by the end of 2013 greece would have a worse depression than the great depression in the u.s. >> brown: a player in campaign politics, but what of the current debt debate? we talk with tea party ally, matt kibbe. >> warner: and as e.p.a. chief lisa jackson steps down, we assess the track record of the administration's environmental agency. >> brown: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bn

jackson steps down, we assess the track record of the administration's environmental agency. >> brown: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> warner: five days and counting with plenty of tit-for- tat charges, but no agreement in sight. that, in short, summed up the state of affairs in washington today as the fiscal cliff deadline loomed, january first. it would mean more than $600 billion in across-the-board tax increases and automatic spending cuts. >> come the first of this year, americans will have less income than they have today. if we go over the cliff, and it l

local officials. and jeffrey brown samples the poetry about greece's financial woes and its austerity measures. >> we'll hock the person to buy our bread. if you believe the headlines, then we're sunk. greece downgraded deeper into junk. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour.n >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> and by e bill and melina ges foundatn. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy, productive life. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: much of the world paused today to observe christmas. the day brought all the traditional rites of faith for christians and a new urgency to calls for calm in the troubled corners of the globe. thousands of the faithful greeted pope benedict xvi today at his cal bony overlooking st. peter's square. in that

york city's deputy police commissioner, paul brown, who joins us live right now. mr. brown, congratulations. how have you done it? >> thank you, mainly through 35,000 men and women in uniform, but particularly through something called operation at attack where we send as many uniformed police officers as possible into areas where we have seen spikes and violence, particularly shootings. >> that sounds almost like a back to basics campaign. why was the decision taken to go in that direction? >> well, it started with mayor bloomberg and commissioner kelly coming into the office right after 9/11 with a deep downturn in the economy, less tax revenue. we lost 6000 police officers through attrition, we have 6000 fewer now than we had then. that forced us to take a look at how we deploy officers into the city. instead of dividing them up as we usually did into 76 precincts, we focused better on defining exactly where the most violent crimes were happening and putting the biggest number of officers there, the biggest bang for the block. new recruits coming out of the police academy

about that subject, new york city's deputy police commissioner, paul brown, who joins us live right now. mr. brown, congratulations. how have you done it? >> thank you, mainly through 35,000 men and women in uniform, but particularly through something called operation at attack where we send as many uniformed police officers as possible into areas where we have seen spikes and violence, particularly shootings. >> that sounds almost like a back to basics campaign. why was the decision taken to go in that direction? >> well, it started with mayor bloomberg and commissioner kelly coming into the office right after 9/11 with a deep downturn in the economy, less tax revenue. we lost 6000 police officers through attrition, we have 6000 fewer now than we had then. that forced us to take a look at how we deploy officers into the city. instead of dividing them up as we usually did into 76 precincts, we focused better on defining exactly where the most violent crimes were happening and putting the biggest number of officers there, the biggest bang for the block. new recruits coming out of the

widespread corruption by local officials. and jeffrey brown samples the poetry about greece's financial woes and its austerity measures. that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: the election commission in egypt confirmed today the new constitution won nearly 64% of the vote in a referendum. the panel also reported turnout was just a third of the country's 52 million registered voters. president mohammed morsi and his muslim brotherhood backed the draft constitution. opponents warned it paves the way for islamic rule and curbs on civil liberties. the six persian gulf arab nations demanded an end to what they called iranian interference. they issued a statement today at the end of the gulf cooperation council's annual summit. the statement gave no details. the six u.s. allied countries, also called for swift international action to end the bloodshed in syria. in central asia, a military plane crashed early this morning in kazakhstan killing 27 people including the country's head of border security. the russian-made aircr

subject, new york city's deputy police commissioner, paul brown who joins us live right now. mr. brown, congratulations. how have you done it? >> thank you mainly through 35,000 men and women in uniform but particularly through something called operation at attack where we send as many uniformed police officers as possible into areas where we have seen spikes and violence particularly shootings. >> that sounds almost like a back to basics campaign. why was the decision taken to go in that direction? >> well, it started with mayor bloomberg and commissioner kelly coming into the office right after 9/11 with a deep downturn in the economy, less tax revenue. we lost 6000 police officers through attrition, we have 6000 fewer now than we had then. that forced us to take a look at how we deploy officers into the city. instead of dividing them up as we usually did into 76 precincts, we focused better on defining exactly where the most violent crimes were happening and putting the biggest number of officers there, the biggest bang for the block. new recruits coming out of the police academy, t

>> that wraps up to date's pro- forma session. we also heard that senator scott brown had confirmed that report. white house sources are vehemently denying that. the white house saying they have not sent up any bill or any built up to capitol hill today. we expect to have a question comes up when steny hoyer talks with reporters. that is supposed to happen in about five minutes. we will have live coverage when the minority whip speaks to reporters. in the meantime, we will bring you harry reid who opened the senate session this morning with comments on the situation, and we will hear what he had to say about the fiscal cliff now. : new year's eve is fast approaching and for decades and decades the american people have watched the ball drop in times square. it's the countdown to midnight, the start of a new year. but this year, mr. president, the american people are waiting for the ball to drop but it's not going to be a good drop. because americans' taxes are approaching the wrong direction. come the first of this year, americans will have less income than they have today. if we go